“French isn’t mostly spoken by French people and hasn’t been for a long time now,” he admits,” but “the language is growing fast, and growing in the fastest-growing areas of the world, particularly sub-Saharan Africa. The latest projection is that French will be spoken by 750 million people by 2050. One study “even suggests that by that time, French could be the most-spoken language in the world, ahead of English and even Mandarin.” I don’t know about you, but I can never believe in any wave of the future without a traceable past. “When linguists talk about the historical relationship between languages, they use a tree metaphor,” writes Mental Floss’ Arika Okrent. Via Mental Floss Related Content:
La répartition des 23 langues majeures dans le monde en une cartographie. L’infographiste Alberto Lucas Lopez s’est intéressé aux 23 langues les plus usitées dans le monde.

This collection features lessons in 48 languages, including Spanish, French, English, Mandarin, Italian, Russian and more. Download audio lessons to your computer or mp3 player and you’re good to go. Amharic Foreign Service Institute Basic Amharic – Audio – TextbookLessons with dialogues, drills, exercises, and narratives will teach you the basics of this language spoken in Ethiopia. Ancient Greek Ancient Greek Introduction – Web SiteThe UT-Austin Linguistics Research Center provides an overview of Ancient Greek and 10 lessons based on famous Greek texts.